Bobcats | Woods Recruiting

The Charlotte Bobcats will look to rebound for an embarrassing loss at home against the Boston Celtics when they hos the Toronto Raptors tonight at the Tim Warner Cable Arena. The Bobcats were outscored 93-62 on Saturday by the Celtics, their lowest offensive output of the season. Charlotte has lost seven of their last 10 games, and are just 5-6 at home this season. The Raptors avoided their fifth straight loss with a huge comeback win over the Pistons on Saturday. Toronto at one point was down 25 points and entered the fourth quarter down 16, but thanks to improved effort on the defensive side of the ball, the Raptors were able to come away with a 120-116 win. The Raptors will be looking for revenge tonight, as the Bobcats beat Toronto 101-96 on their home floor back on Nov.10. The oddsmakers don’t seem to think that will be the case for the Raptors, as our current NBA spreads have the Bobcats favored by 5-points over the Raptors at home.

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The Raptors have really killed themselves on the defensive side of the floor. In their last game against the Pistons, the Raptors shot 65% from the floor in the first half, but yet still trailed by 19 points. That simply means this team is not playing any defense at all. The Raptors have allowed over 110 points in each of their last five games, and if they don’t start playing defense four four quarters, they are going to continue to find themselves in close games and more times than not on the wrong end of the scoreboard.

The Bobcats shot just 33.8% from the floor and had 22 turnovers against the Celtics, but that was against one of the best defensive teams in the league. The Bobcats have only topped the 100-point mark seven times in 23 games this season, including their 101-point performance at Toronto.

The Bobcats latest performance had team owner Michael Jordan so upset that he personally addressed the team after the game. It will be interesting to see if that ignites this team to start playing better basketball, or if they continue to play like one of the worst teams in the league.

Toronto will be without starting point guard Jose Calderon, but that might not be a bad thing for the Raptors, as Jerryd Bayless dropped 31 points in his last start against the Pistons.

The key players in this game for the Bobcats are Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson, these two combined for 39 points in the Bobcats earlier win over the Raptors, and with the way Charlotte has struggled on offense, this team has to have these two guys bring it every night.

Toronto will need a big game out of Bayless and center Andrea Bargnani, but most importantly the Raptors have to play better defense.

I think you have to take your chances and lay the points on the Bobcats tonight. The Bobcats are 29-16 ATS versus terrible defensive teams – allowing 103+ points/game over the last 3 seasons, and are 6-2 ATS against the Raptors over the last three seasons.

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